Also known as Executive Success Programs, NXIVM is a company offering courses in the development of human potential.

It uses methods created by Keith Raniere, NXIVM's founder, called "Rational Inquiry" technology which Raniere has been trying to patent since 2000. He has said his program is a practice based on how the mind handles data with a goal of ethical behavior.

The program can by purchased like a health club membership to include weekly classes that run year-round, called Ethos, costing about $1,800 annually. Hundreds of modules are offered with names such as "Work and Value" or "Parasite Producing." Students must sign a confidentiality agreement to not share materials, methods and information.

Besides the Ethos program, NXIVM offers "intensives" of 16 days, costing about $7,500, where people work from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.; or for five days, costing about $2,700. VIP intensives can run as much as $10,000 for the five-day program. Also, one-on-one "EMs", or exploration of meaning, sessions are encouraged to concentrate on "issues" a person may be dealing with, such as relationships.

NXIVM promotional material describes its "school" as a place to help people develop consistent ways of approaching goals by changing the way students think, make decisions and react.

Students are instructed that all adults have "disintegrations" because they learned to understand the world from the perspective of a small child and NXIVM courses help people to re-examine beliefs.

Sashes of different colors are assigned to NXIVM participants to denote rank, similar to martial arts.